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Schlechte Wetterverhältnisse sind oftmals die Ursache für tragische Flugzeugunglücke. Steckt ein Flugzeug erst einmal mitten in einem Unwetter, ist es häufig zu spät, eine Katastrophe noch abzuwenden. Deshalb ist es umso wichtiger, extreme Wetterlagen mit Hilfe von Warnsystemen frühzeitig zu orten. Im zweiten Teil des Specials besucht Mayday – Alarm im Cockpit die amerikanische Flugwetterzentale in Kansas City und erklärt, wie aussagekräftige Wetterprognosen dabei helfen, dass Piloten gefährliche Wetterlagen umgehen.
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LernenTranskript
00:01Rain...
00:02We're gonna get our airplane washed.
00:06Pale...
00:07I don't know how we get through here, Bill.
00:08We're down. We're sliding.
00:10Wind...
00:11Oh, no. On the brakes!
00:13In a heartbeat...
00:15He's gonna crash!
00:15Bad weather can turn an ordinary flight into a fight for survival.
00:21The pilots have did their very best to recover from this situation.
00:25And it didn't work out.
00:28The right information...
00:30The right equipment...
00:31Can be the difference between life and death.
00:34Our four engines have failed!
00:36In a constant battle between the planes we fly...
00:39And the weather that batters them.
00:42Race for impact!
01:08It's early December. A massive winter storm is pounding the eastern United States.
01:14This is a pretty interesting weather pattern we have for this time of year.
01:17We're getting a mixed bag of precipitation and weather across the eastern United States.
01:23For most people, the winter weather is no more than an inconvenience.
01:30But for those who fly, the bad weather can be deadly.
01:34A Continental Airlines commuter plane with 48 people aboard crashed into a home in suburban Buffalo.
01:40No survivors. One person on the ground also killed.
01:43The plane was en route from Newark to Buffalo. It was raining with some sleet at the time.
01:49People are making life and death decisions every day based on the weather.
01:54Should I go or should I not go today?
01:56And once they're up in the air, how am I going to make a decision in the next five minutes
01:59that's going to keep myself, my passengers or my aircraft out of harm's way?
02:05On this day, flights from New York to Houston have been delayed and cancelled.
02:10Thousands of travelers are affected.
02:14That's largely because the people in this room have decided that it is unsafe for pilots to fly in this
02:20weather.
02:21Our mission here is to provide safety and safe flying.
02:25This room is every pilot's first line of defense against getting caught in a storm.
02:30It's the federal government's aviation weather center in Kansas City, Missouri.
02:3524 hours a day, seven days a week, the meteorologists in this room scan the skies across the United States
02:41for the kind of weather that can bring down a plane.
02:45The storm they're tracking today is just that kind of weather.
02:51We've got to keep our eye on every hazard and always be prepared for it to pop up.
02:57Today, the people who work here also have to find a way to keep planes out of the storms that
03:02are rolling through the south.
03:07Thunderstorms are a lethal threat to pilots.
03:09The clouds that contain them are massive.
03:12They're usually much too tall to fly over, and the weather inside them can be treacherous.
03:19In no instance does any aircraft want to go into a thunderstorm.
03:23Lightning strikes, hail can certainly damage the airframe.
03:28And in the extreme cases, there can be so much liquid precipitation in that thunderstorm that it will cause a
03:34jet engine to flame out.
03:35The meteorologists here understand the danger of thunderstorms, and one devastating crash has taught them much of what they know.
03:48It's April the 4th, 1977.
03:52Good afternoon, sir.
03:53Good afternoon.
03:54May I see your boarding pass, please?
03:55Southern Airways Flight 242 is bound for Atlanta, Georgia.
03:59Just down the aisle on the right, sir. Enjoy your flight.
04:04Boarding pass?
04:05Here in the United States, the weather in the southeast usually consists of high humidity and high temperature.
04:10That's a perfect recipe for thunderstorms.
04:18It was raining in Huntsville, and they said, oh, it's going to be some bad weather, don't serve.
04:23So we did not serve from Huntsville to Atlanta, which is a very short route, and we were delighted not
04:28to be serving.
04:31Aircraft dispatchers provide flight crews with pre-flight weather information.
04:37Looks like you guys got a good look coming.
04:39Sure thing. Have a good one.
04:42That weather was two hours old. It was no longer updated.
04:48I was a little surprised that we took off when we did.
04:51I really thought we'd taxi out to the end of the runway and hold for a while because the weather
04:56looked so bad.
04:57But we taxied out and immediately took off.
05:03Before the pilots get very far, they receive an ominous weather warning from air traffic control.
05:10Southern Airways 242, I'm painting a line of weather which appears to be moderate to possibly heavy precipitation.
05:18Starting about five miles and a half.
05:20Okay, we're in the rain right now. It doesn't look much heavier than what we're in right now, does it?
05:28Back in 1977, pilots were more reliant on their own skills, abilities, and knowledge than they were on air traffic
05:34control.
05:35In this particular instance, they had onboard weather radar.
05:38I can't read that. It just looks like rain, Bill. What do you think?
05:42There's a hole.
05:43There's a hole right there. That's all I see.
05:47Pilots use their radar to avoid bad weather.
05:50They stay away from regions that are illuminated on the display screen.
05:55Coming over, we had pretty good radar. I believe right straight ahead.
05:59There. The next few miles is probably the best way we can go.
06:03So between that information and looking out the window, they were able to make what they believed were the right
06:09decisions about traversing the weather.
06:12As the pilots of Southern Airways Flight 242 attempt to carve a path through the thunderstorms, they encounter a wall
06:19of storm cells.
06:22It looks heavy. Nothing's going through that.
06:25The storm closes in on the aircraft.
06:30That's a hole, isn't it?
06:32It's not showing a hole, is it?
06:34The gap between the thunderheads the pilots thought they had seen on their radar no longer seems to exist.
06:42Pilots don't like thunderstorms in any way, shape or form, only because it poses a threat to the safe operation
06:48of the airplane.
06:49Because of the high velocity winds, the potential for hail, wind shear, that all has a dramatic effect on the
06:55capabilities of not only the pilot, but of course the aircraft as well.
07:06The hail was probably the loudest noise I've ever heard. It sounded like I was in a metal barrel with
07:12someone throwing rocks at me.
07:15The DC-9 plunges into the storm clouds.
07:19Which way do we cross here or go out? I don't know how we get through here, Bill.
07:24Enormous hailstones continue to pound the aircraft.
07:28You're just going to have to go out.
07:29Yeah, right across that bend.
07:30All clear left, approximately right now.
07:33The pilots try to escape the storm. They use their radar to guide them through it.
07:39I think we can cut across there.
07:41But their radar is deceiving them.
07:44What they think as a whole is in fact the most intense part of the storm ahead.
07:50The pilots of Southern Airways 242 ended up flying into an environment where multiple thunderstorms came together and created a
07:58line, or what they call a squall line.
08:02That's an area of fast moving thunderstorms, the weather system is moving very quickly, and that created not only tornadoes,
08:09but high velocity winds and hail.
08:13Okay, 242, we just got our windshield busted.
08:17We're trying to get it back up to 15.
08:18We're at 14.
08:20While I was looking out at the front of the left engine, I could see the hail continuing to put
08:25more and more dents into the cowling around the engine and into the cone in the center of the engine.
08:31And the engine was starting to make sounds like it was quitting.
08:37The torrent of hail and water overwhelms the engines of the DC-9.
08:42It clogs the critical airflow passages and causes the engines to break apart.
08:46Left engine won't spool.
08:50Our left engine just cut out.
08:53You say you lost an engine and busted a windshield?
08:57Yes, sir.
08:59My god.
09:01The other engine's going too.
09:03Got the other engine going too.
09:05Southern 242, say again.
09:08Standby.
09:14We lost both engines.
09:19What happens next leads to one of the most horrific crashes in aviation history, and spurs fundamental changes to the
09:27way weather forecasts are made.
09:29Brace for impact!
09:34High above Georgia, Southern Airways Flight 242 is falling from the sky.
09:41We lost both engines.
09:43This DC-9 is a glider, and it's falling at 56 feet per second.
09:49They're at 14,000 feet.
09:51They don't have a lot of time.
09:54I realized I was in an emergency situation, and I felt like I was going to die.
09:59But I decided I would do everything I could to try to help my chances.
10:04The plane emerges from the storm with two dead engines.
10:09Get those engines started.
10:16Billy, you have to find me a highway.
10:17Let's get the next clear open field.
10:19No, Bill!
10:20Lyman Q is a young man who has just come back from the proving ground of Southeast Asia, where he
10:25was a naval aviator.
10:27He learned the niceties of landing on a rolling, pitching aircraft carrier in the South China Sea in the middle
10:35of the night.
10:37What he was confronted with right now was even a greater test.
10:41The greatest test he had ever confronted in his life as an airman.
10:47Flaps.
10:50They're down to 50.
10:52Unable to restart the engines, Lyman Keel prepares to land his aircraft on Georgia State Highway 92 without power.
11:01I'm going to land right over that guy.
11:03There's a car ahead.
11:05I got it.
11:06I got it now.
11:08I got it.
11:14Brace for impact!
11:22The aircraft touches down on the highway running through the town of New Hope, Georgia.
11:27Before the plane completely stopped moving, there was fire blowing through the cabin.
11:35The plane clips a utility pole.
11:43And slams into a gas station.
11:47Where I found myself after we woke up, sort of indescribable.
11:52And I could see a crack of light, and I thought, I'm going through that crack of light, come hell
11:56or high water.
12:09I saw a red reflection like fire in the door.
12:16That's when I saw what was happening.
12:21I saw smoke and fire.
12:30And the people that were coming toward me, they weren't screaming, they weren't yelling, they were quiet.
12:35I got back to the kitchen and I was just circled by people.
12:39They knew they were in a house.
12:40And I guess they felt safe.
12:42And they needed somebody to help them.
12:47And I'll remember to the day I died just staring there.
12:51At the trees burning and pine trees burning and pieces of aircraft.
12:57It was so unreal.
13:0022 people survived the crash of Flight 242.
13:0472 people were killed.
13:06Southern Flight 242 crashed after the DC-9 jet lost power in both engines.
13:13The tragedy involving Flight 242 was avoidable.
13:16Had the crew been provided up-to-date weather information when they were in Huntsville.
13:21Had they had an understanding of the area of thunderstorms, how they were starting to come together,
13:26and how it was going to affect their route of flight.
13:28They probably either would have found an alternate place to go,
13:31or they would have stayed in Huntsville.
13:35The importance of timely weather information makes the Aviation Weather Center critical.
13:45After Southern Airways 242 crash in 1977,
13:50the NTSB, after their research, came out with two recommendations.
13:53One was to improve the resolution of the convective or the thunderstorm forecast information,
14:00and the other was to put Weather Service meteorologists in each of the air traffic control centers.
14:06And within a year we did that.
14:09At the time of the Southern Airways crash,
14:12the Weather Center issued thunderstorm advisories every four hours.
14:17And in the United States that's just too long of a window to capture the rapid development that we see
14:23in thunderstorms.
14:24So what they recommended, and which we have done ever since,
14:27is communicate to controllers and to pilots that are in route every hour,
14:32and if need be we can do it in between those hourly observations if conditions are developing fast enough.
14:38As a result of the crash, the Weather Center created a new position.
14:42A meteorologist who does nothing but monitor the skies above the United States for thunderstorms.
14:51On this December day, the meteorologists tracking thunderstorms are very busy.
14:56Storms that had battered Atlanta are on the move.
15:01And you can see up in here, there's a minimum of aircraft, especially where those heavier storms were over eastern
15:07North Carolina.
15:09In addition to providing weather reports, the people here perform other crucial tasks.
15:15When the weather gets bad enough, they can also shut down huge areas of airspace.
15:21They do that by issuing warnings called SIGMETs.
15:25It's short for significant meteorological information.
15:28It's an advisory to pilots to steer clear of the bad weather.
15:32Right now on radar.
15:34Once we become aware or are highly confident that there will be some dangerous weather,
15:38severe turbulence or severe icing, then we will issue what's called the SIGMET.
15:45Today's storms are so severe that the meteorologists at the Aviation Weather Center
15:49are declaring areas of airspace out of bounds for aircraft.
15:55We issued a large area from Norfolk down through the coastal waters of Georgia for severe thunderstorms.
16:04Issuing a SIGMET is simple.
16:06The meteorologists highlight the area that planes are to avoid on their computers.
16:10The information is passed on to dispatchers, air traffic controllers and pilots around the country.
16:17Planes are diverted immediately.
16:21The SIGMET issued by the Aviation Weather Center affects hundreds of flights along the eastern seaboard.
16:27Once it's issued, pilots often have to find a way around the danger zone.
16:32It's no longer just a suggestion.
16:35There are legal consequences to people to adhere to what we've put out.
16:41They're just legally not allowed to go into that airspace while that SIGMET's in effect.
16:47Declaring a SIGMET has enormous implications.
16:50Shutting down a volume of space that's the size of, say, Georgia.
16:54So that severely impacts traffic.
16:56The FAA and the air traffic controllers now need to decide how they're going to, as a system,
17:01move these routes and these aircraft, which can be hundreds of them operating in this space,
17:06around this particular hazard over the next four to six or even longer hours.
17:12Planes can fly around the area affected by a SIGMET, but that increases travel time and costs the airlines an
17:19extra fuel.
17:20The alternative is to keep planes on the ground until the SIGMET is lifted.
17:25They may increase safety, but SIGMETs are a headache for airlines and air traffic controllers.
17:33It averages out about 7,000 planes to 8,000 planes at any moment being managed.
17:39And so when you start shutting down large areas of airspace, which we certainly can do on a very active
17:44thunderstorm day,
17:45it leaves very little operating room for air traffic controllers to put planes through.
17:55Technology allows the meteorologists here to keep planes away from dangerous weather.
18:00But in aviation, some of the most dangerous weather is all but invisible.
18:10August the 2nd, 1985.
18:13Ten degree flaps, please.
18:15Delta Airlines Flight 191 is approaching Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
18:20Contact departure, Wynn Airport.
18:24Texas heat has turned into afternoon storms.
18:27Traffic at the airport is beginning to back up as the weather gets worse.
18:34We're gonna get our airplane washed.
18:37What?
18:39We're gonna get our airplane washed.
18:43Nothing seemed unusual other than the fact that we were starting to get busy and aircraft were starting to pile
18:51up.
18:57Power, Delta 191 heavy out here in the range. Feels good.
19:01191 heavy.
19:02We're not getting any bad warnings from the weather or from other pilots which we rely on as they come
19:08through it.
19:10As the pilots of Delta 191 prepare for landing, the rain begins to fall harder.
19:19It seemed like the closer we got in the DFW, the worse the weather got.
19:24And it was turning into the rain instead of going around it.
19:30At the foot of the runway, one of the most ferocious types of storm clouds stands in their way.
19:37Before landing, check.
19:39Landing gear.
19:40Down. Three green.
19:42At the time, the type of storm the Delta crew is approaching barely has a name.
19:48John McCarthy is one of the world's leading experts on these storms.
19:53It is a tiny thing.
19:55Meteorologically speaking, compared to a big storm or a snowstorm or a hurricane, it's just like a needle in a
20:02haystack.
20:03The needle is a microburst, one of the deadliest and at the time most poorly understood weather phenomena.
20:11They've taken down airliners before.
20:14But as Delta 191 makes its approach, there are no warning systems that can effectively alert the pilots of the
20:20danger they're in.
20:22Prior to 1985, the radars on board the aircraft were built to detect thunderstorms.
20:29Essentially heavy areas of precipitation.
20:31They were not effective, they weren't even designed to detect a microburst.
20:37If you're at the kitchen sink and you turn on the water, and it goes straight down and splashes out
20:43in all directions.
20:44And that's kind of what a microburst is, except that it is extremely bad news if you're an airplane flying
20:52through it.
20:54When a plane hits a microburst, it encounters a complex and powerful set of conditions.
20:59Down drafts and tailwinds batter a plane.
21:03It's a deadly combination.
21:08At its maximum strength, it's no more than two miles across.
21:12And it lasts no more than 15 minutes.
21:17So if you look at that little space and time window, it's very small.
21:22And so the probability of hitting one is low.
21:26Just short of the runway, Delta 191 flies into the microburst.
21:34You're going to lose it all of a sudden.
21:37There it is.
21:46Push it up.
21:47Push it way up.
21:49Way up.
21:50Way up.
21:51Way up.
21:54I pulled my seatbelt out as I could, but at the same time, you could hear a pin drop. Nobody
22:00was talking.
22:01Hang on to this, son of...
22:08He's going to crash.
22:09Damn it!
22:20The pilots of Delta Flight 191 did their very best to recover from this situation.
22:25And it didn't work out.
22:29I must have caught sight of him just at the last millisecond, and he cartwheeled into the tank in just
22:34an instant.
22:35And then, of course, there was fire, not a ball of fire, but a wall of fire.
22:43It seemed like it was only a few seconds, five seconds at the most.
22:47I don't know how long it was.
22:49We was... everything was stopped.
22:55Then all of a sudden, you look up, and it's just nothing there.
22:59It's... everything's gone.
23:00You just see the whole big picture outside.
23:03Like, the plane just opened up.
23:11People just thrown around on the ground.
23:15Some were clothes on, some without clothes on, some were burned.
23:21Just 27 people survived the crash of Delta 191.
23:25Help! Over here!
23:29137 people are killed.
23:33I had seen death before as a medic in Vietnam, but it had never been aimed at civilians, and certainly
23:41not on a mass casualty situation, and certainly not this suddenly.
23:49It's hard to blame the air crew.
23:52Their job is to avoid thunderstorms, and there's probably a forecast for thunderstorms every day at Dallas in the summertime.
23:59Which ones do you avoid? And it's, you know, it's a very difficult problem.
24:05After the crash of Delta 191, the Federal Aviation Administration races to develop technology that can prevent microbursts from killing
24:13again.
24:16If there is one crash that we can look back on now and say, this made things safer, because we
24:25learned from it, it was Delta 191.
24:28One of the most important lessons, that the technology in use at the time simply wasn't good enough.
24:35What we found out is that Doppler radar, which is on the ground, is incredibly effective in detecting microbursts.
24:44Unlike weather radar in use at the time of the crash of Delta 191, Doppler radar can also detect the
24:50direction of winds inside a storm.
24:54And if you look through the Doppler radar, you see a part of it that's going away from the radar,
24:58and a part that's coming towards the radar.
25:00And if it's small, it's absolutely a microburst. It can be nothing else. So it has what we call an
25:08unambiguous signature of a microburst, which means we got it.
25:14When the Doppler radar system at an airport detects a microburst, it sends an alert to air traffic controllers.
25:21The controllers relay the warning to pilots on approach.
25:24Flight 236, microburst alert.
25:265-0, not lost. One mile final. Say intentions.
25:29After the crash of Delta 191, terminal Doppler weather radar was installed in airports across the United States.
25:37Dallas-Fort Worth was one of the first to apply the system.
25:41But technology is only one link in the chain.
25:48Sometimes, even with all the right information, pilots make disastrous decisions.
25:53There's your big what diddly.
25:56We gotta get over there real quick.
26:02This December day has been a long one for thousands of airline passengers across North America.
26:07A winter storm is moving across the southeastern United States.
26:13The meteorologists at the Aviation Weather Center have shut down a large area of airspace.
26:20Hundreds of flights have been grounded or forced to divert around the storm.
26:24But shutting down that airspace doesn't take the pressure off.
26:30If thunderstorms do start to develop and become very strong and organized,
26:34we can't let that distract us from other hazards such as icing, turbulence,
26:39or even strong surface winds or low-level wind shear.
26:43The meteorologists here can see troubling weather ahead and let pilots know how to avoid it.
26:49But sometimes what pilots do with that information can lead to disaster.
26:59June the 1st, 1999.
27:02American Airlines Flight 1420 has been delayed by weather.
27:06Dispatch, please.
27:09Yeah, it's Michael Argel.
27:10Storms threatened this flight's destination, Little Rock National Airport in Arkansas.
27:17The pilots at 1420 had received a briefing from their dispatch department
27:21about all of the thunderstorm activity that they were gonna encounter between Dallas and Little Rock.
27:28They were also warned about the fact that because of the fast-moving weather system
27:32that they would be entering into an area called or what was characterized as the bowling alley.
27:44Two hours behind schedule, the pilots decide to make the flight.
27:54They race to fly through a gap in the storm system.
27:58Whoa. Looks like it's moving this way, though.
28:01Yeah.
28:03Just some lightning straight ahead.
28:05I think we're gonna be okay, though.
28:07Right there.
28:09Yep. Right down the bowling alley.
28:11As my friends would say, California cool.
28:13Cool. Beachy.
28:16Exactly.
28:17If they don't make it in time, they will either have to divert to another airport
28:21or land in severe weather conditions.
28:25They were made aware by dispatchers that they were gonna have to get into this alley
28:29or this area of clear weather, and they didn't have a lot of time to do it.
28:41But as they near the airport, the weather gets even worse.
28:47American 1420, it appears we have the second part of the storm moving through.
28:52The wind now is 3-4-0 at 1-6 gusts 3-4.
29:00Okay, did you notice something? Did you see the airport there?
29:03Where?
29:03There, okay. You're on a base for it, okay? It's right there.
29:08Well, I'm on a base now?
29:09It's like a dog leg. We're coming in, and there it is, right there.
29:15I lost it. I don't see how we can maintain visual.
29:21The plane was rocking and rolling at that point.
29:23It was pretty doggone unstable.
29:25I don't know what made me aware, so doggone aware, that we were gonna have a problem.
29:31I don't know what did that.
29:37One of the things that we analyzed was a statement by the captain that was recorded on the cockpit voice
29:42recorder.
29:43See, I hate droning around visual at night and weather without having any clue where we are.
29:50They gave us an indication that they didn't have situational awareness.
29:54They didn't really understand the gravity of the environment that they were flying into.
29:59American 1420, right now we have heavy rain on the airport.
30:03I don't have new weather for you, but visibility is less than a mile.
30:07And the runway four-right RVR is 3,000.
30:13As the pilots of American Airlines Flight 1420 attempt to land, visibility has been reduced even further.
30:22The wind's now 3-5-0 at 3-0 gusts 4-5.
30:27Can we land?
30:290-3-0 at 4-5, American 1420.
30:323,000 RVR, we can't land on that.
30:34No, 3,000 if you look at...
30:35What do we need?
30:35No, it's 2,400 RVR.
30:37Okay, right.
30:38Yeah, we're fine.
30:39The stress level of a pilot increases, especially in an environment where there's thunderstorms,
30:44only because multiple decisions are having to be made in very short periods of time.
30:49Uh, 15.
30:54Land and gear down.
30:57And lights, please.
30:59The pilots could divert to another airport, but they decide to attempt the landing.
31:06Air traffic controllers have detected a dangerous crosswind on the runway.
31:11Wind shear alert.
31:13Center field wind, 3-5-0 at 3-2.
31:16Through gusts 4-5.
31:17North boundary wind, 3-1-0 at 2-9.
31:21Northeast boundary wind, 3-2-0 at 3-2.
31:261,000 feet.
31:2820.
31:2940-40 land.
31:31This is a can of worms.
31:33Wind is 3-3-0 at 2-8.
31:36I'm gonna stay above it a little.
31:38There's a runway off to your right.
31:39You got it?
31:40No.
31:40I got the runway in sight.
31:42You're right on course.
31:42I got it.
31:43Stay where you are.
31:43I got it, I got it.
31:46Wind 3-3-0 at 2-3.
31:49Damn, we're off course.
31:50No, I can't see it.
31:51Way off.
31:51I can't see anything.
31:53Got it?
31:53Got it!
31:54With winds pounding the airport and the runway slick with rain, the pilots make their final approach.
32:0040.
32:0330.
32:0320.
32:0520.
32:0810.
32:16We're down.
32:17We're sliding.
32:18Oh no.
32:19They lose control of the aircraft as they speed down the runway.
32:23On the brakes!
32:30Help me!
32:33Other one!
32:34Other one, other one!
32:47The plane runs off the end of the runway and crashes into several steel columns.
32:53I knew I was not gonna die in that thing.
32:56I got out of that plane probably in 10 seconds.
32:59It's like being in war.
33:00Go, go, go!
33:02But not everyone is so lucky.
33:05Eleven people are killed in the crash of American Airlines Flight 1420, including Captain Richard Bushman.
33:15Did they really know what they were getting themselves into?
33:19That was a key point for us as investigators.
33:21They went into an environment that was detrimental to their safety.
33:27The National Transportation Safety Board rules that the pilots' decision to land at Little Rock Airport was the primary cause
33:34of the accident.
33:38On the day of the crash, the pilots of Flight 1420 had to rely on controllers to relay information about
33:45conditions on the runway.
33:53At the Aviation Weather Center, meteorologists are trying to get rid of that middleman.
33:58We can provide a picture right in the cockpit.
34:01And the pilot can navigate looking at a picture as opposed to trying to translate some words that they've heard
34:07read to them over a radio.
34:09They can see what the hazard's gonna be in relation to aircraft and start making decisions immediately as opposed to
34:15decoding, drawing where that hazard is, thinking about where they are in relation to the hazard, and then trying to
34:21make that decision.
34:22It will speed up the process.
34:25Throughout the day, meteorologists in this room have been tracking a band of fierce thunderstorms in the southern United States.
34:33Those storms are beginning to die down.
34:37Meteorologists have started to reopen airspace they had previously closed.
34:43Air traffic is returning to normal.
34:48The thunderstorms in the southern United States are dying down.
34:52But the meteorologists are now keeping a close eye on a very dangerous new development.
34:57A volcano south of the United States.
35:04Volcanic ash clouds can be a hazard and do a lot of damage to the aircraft and to engines.
35:15Nolan Duke is tracking weather over the Gulf of Mexico.
35:20This is Sufr Hills.
35:21This is near Antigua.
35:23In the windward islands.
35:26South-southeast of Puerto Rico.
35:30And it blew its stack.
35:35Sufrir Hills volcano has been venting ash for the past week.
35:39The volcanic ash cloud it's been releasing could prove deadly if pilots were to fly through it.
35:47The Aviation Weather Center has issued a SIGMET to keep planes away from the plume.
35:54We have 30,000 people living on platforms, drilling platforms out here at any given time.
36:01And they have 650 helicopters that fly every day over the northern Gulf of Mexico delivering people, materials and food
36:09to keep these drilling operations going.
36:12We thought it would end yesterday and they forecasted it to puff and disappear, but it's still going today.
36:18As long as we can see ash plume, we will continue to issue the SIGMET.
36:27Unlike ash that you might see in a chimney or after a fire in a forest, this is not soft
36:33material at all.
36:34This is very fine ground up particles of solid rock and minerals.
36:41But that fine dust has the power to stop a 300 ton airliner.
36:48On June the 24th, 1982, the devastating effects of an ash cloud took the crew of a British Airways jet
36:55completely by surprise.
37:00Barry and I were just sitting there minding the shop, pitch dark night of course, and then we started to
37:05get these impricks of light on the windscreen.
37:10Mount Galangang on the island of Java has erupted, but no warnings have been issued to pilots.
37:17When the 747 flies into the cloud, it collides with the volcanic ash particles inside.
37:24The friction creates a bright shimmering glow on the windscreen.
37:31Because it's such a dry environment up there, that frictional electrification produces the glow that we refer to as St.
37:40Elmo's fire.
37:41Same on my side.
37:43But the crew had no idea what they were looking at.
37:47This light show, if you like, had become more intense.
37:50In fact, we ended up sitting there with two sheets of brilliant white light in front of us in place
37:56of the windscreen.
38:00Passengers aboard the flight also see a strange glow around the plane's jet engines.
38:06Smoke begins to seep into the cabin around them.
38:10Volcanic ash has been sucked into the aircraft's ventilation system.
38:16With ash particles clouding the cabin and the aircraft lit up, the volcanic cloud deals its most deadly blow.
38:27Engine failure. Number four. Fire action. Number four.
38:31The ash has snuffed out one of the jet's four massive engines.
38:37There were huge flames coming out of the back of the engines.
38:4220, some people said 40 feet long, shooting out of the back of all the engines.
38:48Is it going to penetrate from the outside of the aircraft?
38:51Is it going to come into the cabin?
38:53Are we going to burn to death?
38:55Are we going to choke to death on the smoke?
38:58No!
39:03Number two. Engine's gone.
39:06All right, then. Begin the engine shut.
39:08No! Wait!
39:11They've all gone.
39:12All four engines have failed.
39:15The other three just went out almost immediately.
39:18And that's when it begins to be a serious emergency.
39:22A minute and a half, we've gone from four engines running normally to having none.
39:28The 747 is suddenly powerless, and it's quickly falling to the sea.
39:36Starting the engines has become the crew's only priority.
39:39But volcanic ash is making that task impossible.
39:46The temperature in the combustion chamber where this ash is flowing through are around 2,000 degrees centigrade.
39:52And so the volcanic ash we know melts at about 1,300, 1,400 degrees.
39:59The volcanic ash transforms into molten goo within the jet engines.
40:03The material blocks key air passages and causes the engines to surge and shut down.
40:12We've got a fundamental disturbance of the airflow in the main core of the engine, which caused the engine to
40:19backfire.
40:20And the engines flamed out, and that was the cause of the problem.
40:31Roger, declare emergency.
40:33Mayday, mayday, mayday. Speedbird 9. We have lost all four engines out of 3-7-0.
40:43Without the engines, the 747 begins to fall from the sky.
40:49At an altitude of 35,000 feet, the pilots have less than half an hour before their aircraft will crash
40:56into the Indian Ocean.
40:59Alright, begin restart drill.
41:02Battery.
41:03Check. On.
41:04The standard restart drill takes three minutes to complete.
41:08Anything?
41:10Anything?
41:11No.
41:11Again.
41:13Alright then, from the top. Battery.
41:14The crew will have fewer than ten attempts to start the engines.
41:18Fire switch.
41:20In.
41:23British Airways Flight 009's dead engines are having an effect inside the cabin.
41:29The engines usually maintain air pressure.
41:31Without them, the pressure is dropping.
41:34Passengers are having difficulty breathing.
41:36Ah!
41:39There we go.
41:40Breathe normally, but I'm not deep.
41:42Standby power.
41:43Open.
41:44Crossfeed valve.
41:45In.
41:46Fire switch.
41:47Closed.
41:49We hadn't had any success with the drill at all, despite all the efforts we were putting in.
41:54But it was the only thing we had left to cling on to, so that's what we did.
41:58From the top again. Battery. Check. On.
42:03Start the flight mission on. Start river on.
42:07Alright, are we getting something?
42:09It's not starting.
42:14Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.
42:16We have a small problem.
42:18All four engines have stopped.
42:20We're doing our damnedest to get it under control.
42:22I trust you are not in too much distress.
42:26We had very few chances left of starting the engines before having to turn out to sea again,
42:34because we wouldn't have been able to clear the mountains on the south coast of Java.
42:39Then, with just 12,000 feet separating British Airways Flight 009 from the ocean,
42:46engine number four roars to life.
42:55Engine four back on line.
42:58The noise that a Rolls-Royce engine makes when it starts up is low rumbling noise, you know,
43:03and it was, er, it was just, well, it was wonderful to hear it.
43:07The glass now is half full. It's not half empty.
43:10We're now in with a real chance.
43:12And I tell you what, the three of us would have dragged that aeroplane round the whole island of Java.
43:18Get down.
43:25It's very stomp, which is a little bit so big.
43:26Let's go.
43:26All right, let's go.
43:27Let's go.
43:31OK, let's go.
43:39Let's go.
43:39We're still going.
43:39There's no other issue.
43:40Let's go.
43:42As soon as you came out of the volcanic ash and the engines were not running, remember,
43:47so everything cooled down, it was enough of this stuff to break off
43:51and allow the engines to restart.
43:56We say, right, let's get this thing on the ground as quickly as we can.
43:59Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.
44:02We seem to have overcome that problem and have managed to start all the engines.
44:15We are diverted to Jakarta and expect to land in about 15 minutes.
44:21British Airways Flight 009 landed safely.
44:25No one was injured and an important lesson was learned.
44:30We have learned quite a bit and we've incorporated this learning into pilot training.
44:36Pilots now, for example, know what signs to look for.
44:40After British Airways Flight 009's emergency landing in Jakarta,
44:44communications were improved between the geologists who watch volcanoes on the ground
44:49and the pilots who must avoid the ash clouds.
44:52During the day, they are plainly visible to pilots.
44:57And then at night time, they're relying a lot on their onboard radars
45:01and that's not going to detect volcanic ash.
45:05Anything on the radar?
45:07No.
45:07So they're completely blind to it.
45:11And they just blindly fly right into the ash cloud.
45:19Today, meteorologists were forced to shut down airspace due to violent thunderstorms and volcanic ash.
45:35We never really seem to get a break where we can sit back and put our feet on the desk
45:39and relax.
45:40There's always something going and there's always the next storm coming down the pipeline and we've got to address it.
45:47The next storm has begun to appear.
45:51Pilots in the Seattle region are calling in with reports of severe turbulence.
45:57But we've got two systems actually over the west that we're watching, one over now over central California
46:02and what looks like it's a little bit more powerful storm coming on shore into Washington and Oregon.
46:07That's certainly going to be our attention getter for the next day and a half.
46:11More than a million people got on an airplane on this stormy December day.
46:16Some planes were delayed, but there wasn't a single accident due to weather.
46:21That's the kind of result these meteorologists hope for every day.
46:28Ideally, we'd never have clouds or any type of hazardous weather for pilots and everything would be clear skies and
46:34smooth sailing.
46:36We're here to help people be safe and when that duty calls, we're prepared.
46:41We'll catch our breath today and get ready for tomorrow.